Chloe’s homework assignment today was to write sentences containing the week’s vocabulary words. This week’s words are the days of the week so, in theory, Chloe needed to write seven sentences. Instead, she wrote her first story of second grade, which she has kindly allowed me to reproduce here. We have a future storyteller in our midst…
“Anny and the Giant” by Chloe
There once was a man named Mr. Willson. He was a very nice man. He was about in his 30s. Every Monday and Tuesday, he would bring his daughter to work with him. Her name was Anny. Her father worked at a toy shop. His daughter loved it there. Then one Tuesday a toy giant caught her eye. Anny asked her father if he could get it for her. So on Wednesday he had a toy giant in his hands. That afternoon after school Anny played with her toy giant. Suddenly on Thursday morning Anny was holding the giant in her hands. It started to move its hands then the giant said something. He said: let go of me. So Anny put him on the floor. But before she knew it she had to go to breakfast. So she went out of the room. After breakfast Anny went to brush her teeth and after that went to school. Friday wasn’t that much fun. But Saturday and Sunday were fun. On Sunday Anny played with her giant and suddenly it came to life. And it said: Are you a giant too? No said Anny and after that they became best friends and they lived a long nice life. And as for her father well his toy shop became popular. And that was that. THE END.
In another one of those milestones that make you nostalgic for the way things used to be, Chloe has started to read by herself at bedtime, rather than having me read to her. This development makes me feel a little sad, actually.
On the one hand, it’s nice to be able to say, “Chloe, it’s time for bed,” give her a hug and a kiss goodnight and have the rest of the evening to myself. And it’s so exciting that she loves reading as much as she does. On the other hand, I miss the bonding we experienced every night as we discovered all sorts of wonderful books together.
All hope is not lost, however. Before this newfound independence of hers, we had started reading “The Secret Garden.” We’re about halfway through, and I’m just going to have to insist that we finish it. Our one last hurrah. Good thing there’s Sophie to pick up the slack!
…too little too late. She only has three weeks left before she turns three. And she’s a smart cookie -I think she realizes that she better let out all that bad behavior before she has no more excuses.
She’s starting to realize that she can try to put up a fight if she doesn’t get her way. She’s fighting back when Chloe bugs her (even if Chloe bugging her is not an intentional act on Chloe’s part). She’s rebelling against her big girl car seat. She’s been waking up in the middle of the night this week. She drew with ballpoint pen on our butcher block kitchen island. She threw a fit when I told her the cup she wanted to use was in the dishwasher.
I could go on and on and on. But you get the drift. She’s not been on her best behavior this week. Except with one of her babysitters, who said she’s always perfect. We seem to have that Jekyll/Hyde thing going on again. She has three weeks to get Jekyll out of her system. Or no birthday presents.
Here she is – in the hallway in front of her 2nd grade classroom. She LOVES her teacher, who does seem very warm and energetic. The teacher definitely went up a notch in my book when she announced that she has all the supplies the kids will need. Sorry, Staples, we won’t be visiting any time soon.
Chloe is in the first row – surrounded by two boys. This is a good thing, because it likely means that she won’t be tempted to blab too much, a problem she had last year.
On another subject entirely, Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me. She talks about God way too much (God sent us to Iraq, God wants us to build the oil pipeline…) for someone who is aspiring to hold the 2nd most important office in the country. I mean, really, how can anyone take her seriously? Here I am, getting all riled up again. So I will stop writing about her for now. Just know that I’ve made my first contribution to Obama’s campaign – thanks to her nonsense – as have millions of other people, apparently.
Came home to a very cranky Sophie this evening. This is the Sophie that was wimpering because she was unhappy about something – what it was remains a mystery because all she did was whimper. No words, just whimpering.
After she realized that whimpering was getting her nowhere, she calmed down. For a few minutes. And then she got pissed off because I had the audacity to bring her cup of milk outside. She didn’t want me to bring it outside and she took it from me and proceeded to throw it on the ground.
One would think I had committed a capital offense. So I picked up the cup and was very stern and told her that if she didn’t put it in the fridge, she’d have quiet time in the corner. She hates the corner. But she doesn’t hate it enough, I guess. She stubbornly refused to oblige, and so the corner had company for two minutes (which, in a few weeks, will increase to three minutes when she celebrates her birthday).
Chloe starts school tomorrow – 2nd grade! In the meantime, her Papa bought her two more Nancy Drew books yesterday afternoon, volumes 9 and 10. And I’m not kidding when I tell you that since yesterday at about 5 pm she’s finished volume 9 and is halfway through volume 10…How crazy is that?
You’ll recall that we posted a brief video of Chloe diving at the beginning of the summer. Here is Chloe again, indulging us with a new and improved dive in celebration of (or mourning for, depending on your point of view) the last weekend of the season. Farewell summer of ’08 – here’s to ’09!
During the girls’ visit with Grammy the other day, they went to a local zoo that had a parakeet exhibit. Lots of parakeets all over the place, in the same spirit as the butterfly exhibits that have become very popular.
Chloe and Sophie each held a feeding stick to attract the birds, and as you can see from the photo, the birds were not shy. Their friendliness and proximity enchanted the girls, and they had a grand time.
It’s a very good thing I wasn’t with them. Because had I been there, my main preoccupation would have been all the potential for well-targeted bird excrement falling on the human invaders. There were tons of birds hanging out, ergo tons of potential for poop. And there were no plastic protective ponchos in the offing. The girls and my mom were spared, however. Lucky for them.
We just got home with the girls – after our 24-hour reprieve from caretaking. I really enjoyed the quiet, but I missed them a smidgeon towards the end.
That is, until we arrived at my mom’s place, and Sophie started crying because she was tired and because we were there to pay attention to her. And until they started screaming and running around my mom’s apartment. And until we got to the car and Sophie started sobbing again because she was even more tired than she had been when we first arrived.
The girls had a fine time with their Grammy, as evidenced by this photo taken at a local park. Sophie obviously loved the little train ride. And Grammy is always chock-full of activities. They made Play-Doh (yes, out of flour and other ingredients) this morning and created little creatures – an alligator, snake, frog and turtle. My mom gave them some old clip-on earrings for dress-up play. They went swimming, they colored (and Sophie is a mighty good colorer) and they ate my mom out of house and home. My mom thinks Chloe has tapeworm. Highly unlikely. Shes just a very hungry child.
A Mom's Ramblings About the Marvels & Mishaps of Parenting, the Joys of Family Travel & the Writing Life
